Splatters of Paint: Birth Story

So 3 weeks ago on the 16th April.... I had a baby - the most delicious baby boy that I have ever seen in my life - he is so cruisey, and I want to hug and kiss him AAALLLLLL day!

For those of you who want to know my birth story here it goes....

I was booked in for an induction as I had gestational diabetes

8am – we arrive at the hospital and sit in the waiting room for at least half an hour. Boooooooring already. Soon a midwife and a student midwife come to get us and take us up to the ward where they take my blood pressure, and hook me up to a machine to monitor the baby – have to lie still for half an hour to get a good consistent reading of the baby’s heartbeat. They do this on and off until 10am.

10am – they put in some gel that will help get things started – they tell me I can’t have anymore until 4pm, and sometimes it’s a good idea to go for a walk, so if I want to I can walk up and down the corridor (yeah right – do they not know who I am?)

Instead we decide to laze around in the room and do other important things…. Like nap

11am - nap (husband snores loudly on chair)

Lunchtimeish – husband goes to get some food and a crossword/wordfind book

We begin to go through the crossword/wordfind book – consulting our good friend Mr Google on many occasions to help us answer some of the clues.

Find out that we are pretty good at some of these crosswords without the help of Mr Google – I surprised myself a few times with my answers

Meanwhile, the machine shows I’m getting little tightenings – they are not bad just feel a little like my tummy is rumbling because its hungry

Still counting down the hours until 4pm

Still doing crosswords and wordfinds, and other word puzzles

Still getting tightenings that feel like a hungry tummy

4pm finally rolls around – whooooooooooooo hooooooooo (I’ve never been so happy in my life) but hoping that the gel has done it’s job cos I really can’t be bothered waiting another 6 hours, and I'm not a very patient person

Midwife comes in to check if I need more gel and discovers that I’m dilated enough to have my waters broken, so calls delivery suite to tell them I’m ready when they are

Sometime between 4 and 5 midwife from delivery suite comes to get us and take us down – we have a little discussion about whether we are going in the lift or down the stairs (apparently stairs helps things progress a little) but I won and we took the lift - again, do they not know who I am? Me and stairs are not friends J

Sometime between 5 and 5:30pm midwife does some monitoring and then breaks my waters – feels like there is a thousand litres of the stuff and I’m going to drown in it!

Contractions begin to be closer together but they still don’t feel that bad – midwife tells me that I don’t even look like I’m in labour (Matthew continues to do crossword book – I throw in some answers every now and then)

I decide that I might want to stand up against the bed….. Matthew and midwife help me to stand and they put the bed up to my height… I then decide I don’t want to do that anymore and that I think I want to get on it on my hands and knees so they have to put it down again – sorry guys!

Matthew presses on my back during contractions – feels great! I may also occasionally bite the mattress during contractions – during this I think I’m pretty awesome cos I’ve buried my face in the mattress enough that no one can really tell I’m biting it! Crossword book still going on...

Between 6 and 6:30pm midwife is due for a break so goes off to have a cup of tea – she tells Matthew if anything happens to push the button cos she’s not far away…

Seems like she’s gone to the other side of the hospital and won’t be back for 2 hours – contractions are getting worse now – I tell Matthew to push really hard on my back – so he leans over me putting all of his weight on me – this is good and takes the pain away, (still doing the crossword book) he’s asking me questions about the puzzles but I’m not really interested in helping anymore – just get this thing outta me!

Midwife walks in – I’m probably biting the mattress, and Matthew is leaning over my back DOING THE CROSSWORD BOOK! Must have been an awesome sight to come back to!

Midwife hasn’t been back for long and at 6:45pm I start pushing – not long now and he’ll be here! Matthew tells me he can see the head and that he has chubby little cheeks….

A few more pushes and at 6:55pm he’s born, weighing 8lb 9oz!